Athletics

Denying Sonia O’Sullivan a double-gold: Recalling the crazy Chinese medal heist of 1993

Now 30 years ago, that stunned sense of disbelief lingers when recalling one of the great daylight robberies in track-and-field history

The 3000m final at the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany on August 22nd, 1993, where Ireland's Sonia O’Sullivan finished fourth. File photograph: Inpho

Ian O'Riordan's face
Ian O'Riordan
Sat Aug 12 2023 - 05:00

Late afternoon and the house is hot. Sitting in the large wood-panelled front room at 56 John Street, east side of Providence, Rhode Island. A first cold beer in weeks in hand and the other runners do too. The small TV set on concrete blocks showing ABC Sports and about to take us live to Stuttgart.

Go Sonia, go!

Like most seismic episodes is this sporting life I can recall exactly where I was and what I was doing. That it’s now already 30 years ago —looking at my old training diary it was Monday, August 16th, 1993 — hasn’t lessened any of that stunned sense of disbelief as we sat there witnessing one of the great daylight robberies in the long history of track and field.

We were soon to be seniors at Brown University, back at the old wooden pile just off campus often dubbed Doobey Hall (once a runner, take another bow) and slowly hammering out the miles, twice daily, in advance of our last cross-country season. Back where we longed for nothing and were quite satisfied.

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Even though they were American we all knew Sonia O’Sullivan; not in person, but as she often passed us, in her own winning pursuits a few years before, running for Villanova University. We were all utterly absorbed by our sport, only I had them convinced O’Sullivan was going to win the 3,000m.

I told them luck was already in the air, this being the same then-named Neckarstadion where at Euro ‘88 Ray Houghton put the ball in the back of England’s net

This being the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, only the fourth edition and the first of the now biennial cycle after Helsinki (1983), Rome (1987) and Tokyo (1991). ABC Sports wasn’t in fact live that Monday afternoon, but a delayed transmission, all of us blissfully unaware of events which had already unfolded some 4,000 miles away. How could we know?

I told them luck was already in the air, this being the same then-named Neckarstadion where at Euro ‘88 Ray Houghton put the ball in the back of England’s net. O’Sullivan, we knew, was running the 1,500m also, and such was her form going to Stuttgart that not winning one gold medal would likely be a disappointment and there was every chance she could come away with two.

In her final races before Stuttgart, she clocked 8:30.12 to win the 3,000m at the Zurich Golden League, the fastest time in Europe, and followed that up three days later by winning the 1,500m in Monaco in a national record of 3:59.60.

At that point in time, almost nothing was known about the nine Chinese women runners in Stuttgart, all entered in the 1,500m, 3,000m and 10,000m, and all coached by Ma Junren, who had set up several high-altitude training camps in remote locations around China, including the Duoba training centre in Qinhai Province, which lies at 2,360m.

Keeping his distance runners in strict regimental tow promptly earned them the title Ma’s Army. Despite their complete lack of global championship experience, Ma claimed they would win all three distance-running events, which is exactly what they did.

There was one other hint: that June, the then IAAF received an application for a world junior 3,000m record of 8:36.45 by Ma Ningning, clocked in Jinan on June 6th. Amazingly, the forms showed she’d only placed fourth in a crazy fast race behind Wang Junxia (8:27.68), Qu Yunxia (8:29.30) and Zhang Lirong (8:35.05).

For O’Sullivan, who duly won her 3,000m heat on the Saturday, with Zhang Lirong from Ma’s Army a close second, there was still no telling what was to come. Monday’s final was cagey until exactly 2,300m, when the Chinese trio of Qu, Zhang, and Zhang Linli took off in spectacular fashion, Qu in front and filed, it seemed, in descending order of height.

Sonia O’Sullivan went into the final the following Sunday afternoon a little more forewarned perhaps of another crazy race

Clocking 60.72 for the section between 2,400m and 2,800m, they shattered the field and the race, Zhang Lirong holding off O’Sullivan for the bronze. Qu covered the final lap in an amazing 59.22, winning in 8:28.71. The look on O’Sullivan’s face said it all; fourth in 8:33.38.

There was still that chance for redemption in the 1,500m, and after winning her heat on the Friday evening (Lü Yi of China in second), O’Sullivan went into the final the following Sunday afternoon a little more forewarned perhaps of another crazy race.

After running a personal best of 4:04.36 in her heat, Liu Dong was marked as the probable winner. She shared the lead with defending champion Hassiba Boulmerka from Algeria, before at precisely 800m, Liu took off and dropped a 60.15 circuit, accelerating again with 57.48 last lap, winning in 4:00.50.

Only this time O’Sullivan chased with everything she had, winning the silver medal in 4:03.48. After Liu took off of a lap of honour, sections of the crowd could be heard booing after the sight of another Chinese woman running away with it in every sense.

After another of Ma’s Army, Wang Junxia, won the 10,000m in 30:49.30, ahead of Zhong Huandi, China finished second on the overall medal table in Stuttgart (behind the USA). Indeed, Ma’s Army won six out of a possible nine medals in the three distance running events they entered. Simply unheard of.

The then 44-year-old had zero athletics background, smoked 40 cigarettes a day, and admitted losing up to 10 per cent of his athletes through injury. He put their success down to their marathon-a-day training, plus his own range of Chinese potions, including the warm blood of a freshly decapitated turtle.

None of Ma’s Army failed a doping test at the time, although the endurance drug EPO [Erythropoietin], which since the early 1990s had come flooding into cycling and was known to be spilling over into athletics too, wasn’t detectible until 2000

Most of Ma’s Army would then disappear as quickly as they arrived, although some weren’t finished just yet. At the China National Games in Beijing that September, Wang broke three world records in three events consecutively over a range of distances, her 8:06.11 for 3,000m still standing 30 years later

None of Ma’s Army failed a doping test at the time, although the endurance drug EPO [Erythropoietin], which since the early 1990s had come flooding into cycling and was known to be spilling over into athletics too, wasn’t detectible until 2000.

Eventually, the truth began to emerge. According to Chinese state media reports, released in February 2016, all nine of Ma’s Army in Stuttgart were forced to take “large doses of illegal drugs over the years”. A letter, signed by Wang and her eight team-mates in 1995, also detailed the regime of state-sponsored doping.

Then in October 2017, there was further evidence. In an interview with German broadcaster ARD, former Chinese team doctor Xue Yinxian claimed all medals won by Chinese athletes in the 1980s and 1990s should be handed back, given they were “showered in doping”.

O’Sullivan went on to win gold at the 1995 World Championship over 5,000m, one of her many career highs, only nowhere in the 200-page World Athletics statistics book sent around this week, ahead of the 19th World Championships starting in Budapest next Saturday, is there any recall of her being denied a double-gold in Stuttgart 30 years ago. So let’s recall it again here.

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